Under beauty’s spell

This illustration is called Feminine Opiate. My motivation for the piece was that I wanted to experiment with textured backgrounds in portraiture, and I enjoy painting pretty girls. I used acrylic paints for this piece and started out by deciding my color palette of contrasting teal and magenta and adding texture to the background until it felt right. I then added the girl, who doesn’t really resemble anyone in particular, but seems to fit in this environment. I tried to give her a sort of ethereal quality. The flower in her hair was a last-minute decision, but I think it suits her.